Apple Counts Down To 50 Billion Downloads In iTunes App Store

Apple has begun counting down (counting up, rather?) to 50 billion downloads in the iTunes App Store, and they're celebrating the milestone by giving away a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the lucky person who downloads the 50 billionth app. The company will also be handing out $500 iTunes gift cards to 50 people that download the next 50 apps.

In the meantime, Apple is displaying a list of the most downloaded apps of all time in the iTunes App Store. For iPhone apps, Angry Birds takes the number one spot for paid apps, while Facebook tops the list of the free apps on iPhone. As for iPad, Apple's Pages takes the number one paid app, while Skype is the number one free iPad app, surprisingly.

Interestingly enough, the top five paid apps for iPhone are all games, with eight out of the top 10 being games as well. However, only two out of the top 10 free apps on iPhone are games. Pandora, Instagram, YouTube, and Skype round out the top five free apps on iPhone, with the top five paid apps consisting of Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Doodle Jump, Cut the Rope, and Angry Birds Seasons.

The iPad showed some of the same trends as well, with seven out of the top ten paid iPad apps being games, and only three out of the top 10 free iPad apps being games as well. The top five paid iPad apps of all time consists of Pages, Angry Birds HD, Angry Birds Seasons HD, Where's My Water?, and Fruit Ninja HD. As for free apps: Skype, The Weather Channel, Netflix, Angry Birds HD Free, and Kindle took the top honors.